The entire existence of the NRO was a secret until an unredacted congressional budget report accidentally was entered into the record in ~1990. The NRO donated two unlaunched, out-of-date satellites to NASA in 2011 and the sensors/mirrors were well ahead of anything NASA had, including the Hubble telescope. And these were the satellites that were operational decades previously some estimates saying the model was launched originally in the mid-70s.[1]

Don't underestimate what's up there. It's provably ahead of the civilian world by a long ways.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_National_Reconnaissance_O...

How is the existence of the NRO a counter to "Why is this such a persistent meme that governments always have some crazy tech up their sleeves"? Like why would it matter if it was the Air Force buying satellite or some other agency like the navy or NRO?

> the sensors/mirrors were well ahead of anything NASA, including the Hubble telescope.

Hubble was designed in the 70s and launched in the 90s. So what if the NRO can spend more money and get something slightly better, how is that surprising?

> How is the existence of the NRO a counter to "Why is this such a persistent meme that governments always have some crazy tech up their sleeves"?

The NRO had crazy secret tech up its sleeves. It is a part of the U.S. government. It is far from the only such example.

I was looking at KH-11 imagery in Janes and Aviation Week in 1984.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_KENNEN#/media/File:Janes...

The NRO farms out most of it’s work product now to commercial firms.

Or maybe, just maybe, the whole 'donation' thing was a plant, a mockup using then-current tech, to make people believe exactly that: that the NRO somehow was decades ahead in their sensors/mirrors game.